Bhubaneswar, April 29 In a crackdown against illegal deposit schemes, the ED’s Bhubaneswar Zonal Office attached assets worth Rs 1,428 crore of Goldenland Group of Companies for duping thousands of investors by promising high returns, an official said on Tuesday.
The company and its affiliates illegally and fraudulently raised huge amounts of money from thousands of investors in Odisha and Andhra Pradesh under the garb of investment in real estate development.
The firm floated illegal financial businesses of lump sum deposits and diverted funds to other companies, said the ED.
The seizure of assets, which include bank balances amounting to Rs 15.06 crore and properties measuring 1,000 acres in various districts of Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, was carried out on Tuesday under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), 2002.
The present market value of immovable assets attached, which also includes constructed buildings and structures, is to the tune of Rs 1,413 crore, said the ED.
The ED initiated the investigation based on an FIR registered by the CBI, Kolkata, under various sections of the IPC, 1860, against Goldenland Group of Companies and others.
The probe revealed that suspect persons, entities and companies associated with Golden Land Developers Limited and GLP Developers Limited floated deposit schemes without any statutory nod and approval from regulatory authorities such as the RBI, SEBI and ROC.
Earlier, the ED had carried out search operations against promoters/directors and owners of these companies at various locations in Odisha, Punjab, Chandigarh and Delhi on February 8, 2024, resulting in the seizure of cash and vehicles.
On Monday, in a separate case, the agency conducted searches at five locations in Hyderabad in connection with an ongoing investigation into alienation of government land for personal gains.
The ED initiated the investigation based on an FIR registered by Telangana Police against private persons and government officials for the alleged illegal sale of government land involving forged documents and manipulation of revenue records.
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